Card Sound Road closed Monday while firefighters battled brush fire

Card Sound Road was closed to vehicle traffic late Monday morning while Miami-Dade firefighters battled a large brush fire.

As of Monday afternoon, the blaze was about 90 percent contained, said Scott Peterich with the Florida Forest Service.

The fire, which grew to around 18 acres, was called in around 9 a.m. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue decided to close Card Sound Road, one of two arteries leading in and out of the Florida Keys, later in the morning because an east wind caused smoke to block visibility on the road, Peterich said.

Officials reopened the road around 2:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, another — larger — fire continued to burn brush nearby, on the west side of U.S. 1 near the Gateway Estates trailer park, located at 35250 South West 177 Court in Homestead. That fire was called in around 4 a.m. Sunday morning, Peterich said., and was burning up to 90 acres at its peak.

The flames were “right up against the trailers,” but firefighters were able to contain it before it burned any structures, Peterich said.

As of 3 p.m. Monday, the fire was about 75 percent contained, according to the Forest Service. Firefighters are having a tougher time putting down the fire because getting enough water and equipment to the remote location is more difficult than it was reaching and battling the Card Sound blaze, Peterich said.

Investigators don’t yet know the cause of either fire, but Peterich said it’s unlikely to have started naturally.

“Whether it was a camper or a vagrant, we don’t know,” he said. “But it certainly wasn’t lightening. It was human caused.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2018 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Card Sound Road closed Monday while firefighters battled brush fire."